#William Davis Hassler (1877-1921)

[saganshy62]

Selfie -- 1913 by Jim Griffin Via Flickr: Taken by William Davis Hassler (1877-1921), collection of the Museum of the City of New York

[petsincollections]

William Gray Hassler with an armload of kittens, undated (ca. 1910-1911).

William Davis Hassler (1877-1921) was born in Cochranton and raised in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He moved to New York City with his wife in 1905. There he worked first in business management before embarking in 1909 on a career as a commercial photographer that lasted until his early death in 1921. Hassler shot a wide range of subjects for a variety of clients, from magazines to construction companies, postal card publishers, and private commissions. Regular work came from the real estate auction house Joseph P. Day, for whom Hassler documented properties all over the five boroughs of New York City as well as Westchester County, Long Island, and New Jersey; and from the United Electric Light & Power Company, who he provided with images of power plants, illuminated signs, and product shots of electrical appliances of all kinds. Hassler was also an avid photographer of his family and friends, including his sister Harriet E. Hassler, who was head of the children’s department of the Queens Borough Public Library, his wife Ethel Magaw Hassler, and his son William Gray Hassler. Hassler resided at 150 Vermilyea Avenue, apartment 44, in Inwood.

New-York Historical Society, Photographs of New York City and Beyond

Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York